Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Tension members, such as tethers, umbilicals, ropes, and cables, are used to support loads associated with overhead transmission lines, suspension bridges, aerostats, offshore drilling platforms, and towing and mining applications, among other uses. In many such applications, the tension members undergo repeated loading, often at very high load values and over a large number of cycles. Thus, a testing system is useful to repeatedly test tension members under anticipated load conditions. Information from such tests may help to determine, for example, how well a tension member product or design will hold up in fatigue.